What’s High Five Ben?

Ben will never stop learning how the world works. To extract his knowledge, he has five minutes to compile information on a given topic, then five minutes to explain in this video us what he knows. Finally, he writes five followup sentences after the video. Enjoy.

Ben, what is oxidation?

5 followup sentences from Ben:

Not sure that counts. Let’s try this again…

Diatomic oxygen (O2) is the most notorious oxidizer, and oxidizers DONATE electrons, which breaks apart electron bonds. (I got this opposite in the video)

All elements want 8 electrons in their shield (except H and He), and Oxygen has 6 valence electrons.

An oxygen atom bonds with another oxygen atom to create diatomic oxygen, giving 2 elements with 12 total electrons—it wants 8 or 16!

Di-oxygen has 4 electrons it wants to share (or take!). But when they share, both oxygen atoms break apart from each other, as they are oxidizing another element or molecule.

If both oxygen atoms meet an element or molecule that will share 4 electrons, then will probably share. Carbon being the most notorious (CO2) and Silicone (SO2…making rock, glass, computer chips and more!)

So, oxidation is the process of molecules sharing their electrons with other molecules.